Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey
Survey Highlights - Measuring Social Capital in Newaygo County

[Community Hightlights] [Survey Highlights] [Press Release]

Among the hundreds of different measurements of social capital in the Social Capital Benchmark Survey, certain communities can be broadly described as being more or less socially connected. But out of the survey, 11 specific dimensions of social capital emerged that provide greater detail about a community's level of social capital. This allows participants in the survey, like Newaygo County, to not only say whether they are socially connected or not, but where they are doing well and where improvements need to be made.

The 11 key dimensions of social capital that emerged from the national survey are:

  • Social Trust: the extent to which members of the community trust other people in general, including neighbors, co-workers, shop clerks and police
  • Racial Trust: the extent to which members of the community trust people of different racial groups.
  • Conventional Politic Participation: how many in the community are registered to vote, actually vote, express interest in politics, are knowledgeable about political issues and read the newspaper regularly.
  • Activist Politic Participation: the extent to which people take part in marches, boycotts, rallies, and groups seeking reform.
  • Civic Leadership: engagement in civic groups, clubs and local discussions in city or school affairs, and how often people take leadership roles in these groups and issues.
  • Associational Involvement: participation in associations or groups ranging from sports leagues, neighborhood associations, labor unions, professional trade groups, hobby groups, etc.
  • Informal Socializing: the degree to which people have friends over to their home, socialize with co-workers away from work, visit with relatives.
  • Diversity of Friendships: the degree to which a people's social networks include people of different races, economic classes and faith.
  • Giving and Volunteering: how much people give to charities and how much time they spend volunteering for local charities.
  • Faith-Based Engagement: religious membership and attendance, participation in church activities other than worship, giving to religious causes, volunteering at places of worship.
  • Equality of Civic Engagement: a composite correlation of civic participation across race, income and education levels.

 

Newaygo County Social Capital Measures
The National Social Capital Benchmark Survey rated the participating communities by a "community quotient" (CQ), which is a measure of expected levels of social capital given a communities particular demographics. The CQ is based on a median of 100 being the expected level. Thus, numbers greater than 100 reflect a higher than expected level of social capital for that category, and numbers below 100 indicate areas for improvement.

The following chart shows the CQ measure of social capital in Newaygo County for each of the 11 key dimensions of social capital.

Social Capital in Newaygo County
97 Social Trust
92 Racial Trust
92 Conventional Politic Participation
106 Activist Politic Participation
96 Civic Leadership
107 Associational Involvement
113 Informal Socializing
111 Diversity of Friendships
102 Giving and Volunteering
100 Faith-Based Engagement
114 Equity of Civic Engagement

How Newaygo County Differs in Social Capital From the Nation
Newaygo County is a rural county in which the population is predominantly white, married, homeowners, high school graduates or with some college or specialized training, but not college graduates. Over one-fourth of Newaygo County adults are retired.

  • Social trust is higher than the nation's, but not higher than is projected for a rural area with the racial, age and educational level composition of Newaygo County.
  • Racial trust is again, higher than the nation's, but not higher than projected for Newaygo County's characteristics.
  • Newaygo County is much higher than expected, and higher than the nation overall, for informal social interaction.
  • The diversity of friendship set is higher than projected. While in a nearly all-white, rural county, residents have less opportunity for association with those of other races or ethnic groups, they have more opportunities to associate with those of different occupations, education and income level.
  • Social capital equality is high, meaning there is less class bias in civic participation than is expected for an area with Newaygo County's race, rural, age and educational level composition.
  • Although average income is below the national average (in part because 28% of adults are retired), contributions to religious causes were 6% higher than the national average last year. However, contributions to non-religious charities were 22% lower than the national average.

How Newaygo County is Similar in Social Capital to the Nation
Newaygo County is at the level projected for a community with its demographic characteristics for;

  • Organized group involvement, both non-religious and religious groups.
  • Electoral politics - although Newaygo residents register and vote at higher than national levels, these levels are no higher than projected for their type of community.
  • Activist or protect politics
  • Civic leadership
  • Charity - combining giving and volunteering
  • Faith based social capital
  • Social and religious trust - as mentioned under how Newaygo County differs, people in the County are more trusting than those in the nation as a whole, but not than what is expected in a community with its characteristics.


Newaygo County: Next Step
The Fremont Area Community Foundation has adopted the need to promote social capital as one of its key principles for involvement in the community. The FACF will use the results from the benchmark survey to develop special program initiatives to promote the concept of social capital in the community.